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6 economist sun stoufivflfelribune saturday july 31 1999 s stoufrville tribune a metroland community newspaper 37 sandiford dr suite 306 stoufivflle ont l4a 7x5 publisher ian proudfoot general manager- alvin brouwer editorinchief advertising director business manager brenda larson regional editor brian kjrlik debra welter classified manager stephen mathieu margaret fleming office manager vivian cfneil editor tracykibble distribution director barrygoodyear a forum for public opinion qyork region municipalities are at odds over establishing a nonsmoking policy for the entire region owners of caverns and nightclubs say a smoking bah will kill their businesses how do you feel about this issue i feel its pretty much true about a ban killing their businesses some nonsmokers that i know would smoke in that environment a ban would benefit health if that is what they are trying to accomplish but then these governments should quit selling ciga rettes to their populations scottwyatt it will kill business in the short term a lot of non- smokers wish they could go out and have a drink without smoke so in the long term it will help them in toronto the restaurants are still busy it has become socially unacceptable to smoke phillip stringer i am for a ban on smoking but i sympathize with bar owners who have a valid point well be like toronto and will phase it in gradually jean hicks im a reformed smoker and i agree their businesses will suffer smokers will go where there is no ban alcohol tobacco and bars these three go hand in hand patios are good linda bapst it will partially kill their business if youre a smoker you wont go in there so yes it will reduce their busi ness in summer it wont be so bad because of patios erkajackman im right in between i was a heavy smoker for 40 years and was forced to give it up for health reasons but i never missed it going into a bar with smokers it wouldnt bother me same with a restaurant wk wilfdawe it sucks with a capitals thats it in a nutshell if you own a business ifs up to you to decide whos going to be in it if you dont like smoking you dont have to go into a tavern bbllykhan this weeks question farmers in york region are calling this the driest sum mer in decades have you noticed the weather has been getting hotter and drier and what do you think the causes are submit contributions to views on the news fax p5 6405477 email thetribistarca opinion r th0segreedyo1l omfiwies raised gfemasmnu letters to the editor sensational reporting does not add to pool debate re your article tempers runninghigh over pool plans july 15 it is disappointing that theatrics fre quently take precedence over analysis and reasoned contributions in the reporting of public debate unfortunately in joan ransbenys article describing public input at coun- cilincommittee meeting thats what happened many of us in attendance attempted to participate without personal attack or inflamed rhetoric by critiquing the specifics of the proposal and the manner in which council has apparently reached a decision some of this is alluded to briefly in the latter part of the article i should point out that my own name is mentioned in connection with com ments which were made but not by me specifically it was reported that the town should delay the project because it does not yet have a deed to the property while the point may be valid it falls well short of my criticisms the four of us who have submitted the application for an amendment to whitchurchstouffvilles official plan have repeatedly attempted to show there are a long list of problems with the towns proposal the main problems are the removal of the library from its current vastly pre ferred location the overblown predic tion of financial savings from the poollibrary combination and especial ly the inappropriate choice of location given the grossly inadequate short and mediumterm road access arrange ments in a community notorious for an awkward road system and less than ade quate longterm planning this proposal i compounds existing problems by creating a situation that will bur den already busy memorial park roads and the heritage residential roads in the immediate area the towns project goes against specific provisions of the recent ly passed secondary plan and against the strongly expressed wishes of a very large sector of the residents of this town unfortunately the giffels traffic study commissioned by the town which might have brought these substantial prob lems to councils attention failed to con tribute any real analysis to the debate in my opinion its illtimed traffic study prior to the pool and baseball sea sons simplistic statistical predictions and noncritical approach assured a document which would support the fea sibility of the towns plans these were among the points i was trying to address at the coun-commit- tee meeting when i spoke and called for council to defer a decision on the access road tender until our proposed amend ment to the official plan has been dealt with rather than sensationalize the issues we need to promote the dissemination of accurate and comprehensive infor mation to members of the public and to foster productive debate on this impor tant topic i encourage people to investigate the librarys a good source actually discuss and finally speak out on this and other public issues stephen sword stouffville dave teetzel save me a spot under the millennium quilt the canada council for the arts has found lots of interesting ways to mark the new millenni um its dividing up 10 million among such worthy efforts as putting poems on buses erecting a bronze monument at a womens prison in maple creek sask and creating a new musical instrument out of a grain silo in montreal i not surprisingly this efforthas been deemed ridiculous and nonsense by inkymark who is the reform partys heritage critic and not i must stress a handpuppet of course spending one thin dime for the sole purpose of celebrating turn ing a page on the calendar is ridiculous the only reason to fund millennium arts projects is if they have merit in and of themselves for example east gwillimbury is asking local residents to contribute squares to a millennium quilt this is an excellent millennium pro ject its attractive communitybased and on jan 1 when the computers crash and the governments fail and the power goes put east gwillimbury resi dents can huddle under it for warmth similarly i think the silophone thafs the grain elevator musical instrument is well worth the 100000 price tag in fact richmond hill should be jumping on this project as the way to save the historic langstaff water tower you see some people in richmond hill are passionate about preserving ugly old structures and the concrete water tower on the former langstaff jail farm fits this bill after all its the last reminder of the glory days when that part of richmond hill was famous as a dumping ground for torontos petty criminals and habitu- al drunks but theres only five months before a developer starts building on the water tower site possibly demolishing it and it could cost a pretty penny to save an ugly concrete toweri but with an arts grant the water tower could become canadas second silophone a marvel of the millennia urn imagine new years eve as the popu- lace gathers on the jail farm to hear the new silophone play the good brothers up against the wall you redneck mothers as performers dressed as petty criminals and habitual drunks do tradi tional folk dances sure sounds like fun but i wont be ihere im saving my spot under the east gwillimbury quilt stouffvffle tribune serving the community since 1888 the stoufmile tribune published every tuesday thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd poup of newspapers which includes the ajavpictering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier barrie advance barrys bay this week bolton enterprise brampton guardian burlington shopping news burlington post city 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